China opens the door to dialogue with the US without showing all its cards

On the global board of economic power, China is making a master play when you open the doors to commercial dialogue with the United States while hiding an ace. While tariffs threaten to shake the markets, Beijing is rewriting the rules of the game with gold warehouses abroad to strengthen Yuan, its national currency.

The spokesman of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Guo Jiakun, expressed today’s disposition for dialogue, but not without a warning. «We don’t want to fight, nor are we afraid to fight,» he said in a press conference. «If necessary, we will fight until the end. But lAt the door for conversations it is open ».

His words arrive in response to the signals of the administration of Donald Trump, who on Tuesday promised to reduce «substantially» the tariffs of 145% imposed on Chinese imports, qualifying them as «very high», but necessary to protect the US economy.

Trump’s rhetoric, softer than usual, followed a warning of the Treasury Secretary, Scott Besent, who described the commercial confrontation as «unsustainable.» The markets, anxious for signs of de -escalated, reacted with an increase of more than 2% in US stock market rates. However, Guo made it clear that any Washington attempt to combine negotiations with «maximum pressure» tactics will be counterproductive. «Cooperation cannot be sought while coercion is used,» he said.

While the looks are set in a possible commercial agreement, China is moving chips on a broader board. On Monday, the Popular Bank of China, together with other regulatory agencies, announced a plan to strengthen Shanghai’s financial infrastructure, with an focus on Yuan’s internationalization. One of the boldest measures is to allow the physical delivery of negotiated products in the Shanghai Gold Exchange in warehouses located abroad, a strategy aimed at desolarization and to reduce dependence on US financial systems.

When developing an infrastructure for a precious metal trade system led by China, the objective is to mitigate the risk that gold reserves are too concentrated in the US, ”said Shen Meng, director of Chanson & CO, an investment bank based in Beijing. Currently, the New York Federal Reserve Bank houses the largest gold reserve for central banks and governments, a position that China perceives as vulnerability in a commercial climbing scenario.

Delarization underway: China bets on gold and yuan

China’s plan also includes promoting reference prices called Yuan in the main international markets and increasing cross -border transactions in Yuan, which in 2024 reached almost 30 billion yuan (4,000 million dollars) in Shanghai, an interannual increase. According to Dan Wang, director for China of Eurasia Group, these initiatives allow «Yuan to be used to buy gold directly from warehouses abroad»with the idea of ​​consolidating its role as a global currency.

Meanwhile, the initiative of the Strip and the China route is strengthened as a counterweight, looking for economic allies in a world where traditional commercial partners negotiate new agreements with the US during a 90 -day tariff pause.

China’s play is clear. In itself, to talk with the US to calm the markets and avoid a global recession, but in doing so He does not want to give ground in his ambition to reconfigure the world financial order. As Lu Lei, Vice Governor of the Popular Bank of China, pointed out, «in an external environment of deep changes, improving the convenience of cross -border financial services is more significant than ever.»

For now, what is clearer is that, while the world expects the commercial battle to cease, China’s real bet is in gold and yuan, an ace that could change the rules of the game. This is because gold and yuan, combined, offer China a tool to erode the domain of the dollar, diversify geopolitical risks and strengthen their economic influence in a polarized world.

A new financial order: the end of the supremacy of the dollar?

China’s dual approach – Diplomacy to appease the present and an alternative financial infrastructure to dominate the future – positions China as an actor who not only responds to US actions, but also that redefines the rules of the global economic system. If you succeed, this plan could mark the beginning of a multipolar financial order, where Yuan, Gold and Bitcoin challenge the supremacy of the dollar, altering the balance of economic power for decades.

On the other hand, China’s audacity charges an even more intriguing nuance in the face of growing doubts about US gold reserves at the end of February, Elon Musk, head of the Government Efficiency Department (Doge) and an influential figure in the Trump administration, questioned the state of reserves in Fort Knox.

His comments, accompanied by Trump’s, revived conspiracy theories that for decades have questioned the integrity of US reserves. Fort Knox, the main US gold deposit since 1937, has not been exhaustively audited since 1974, and government secrecy has fed speculation about whether gold was used to finance secret operations or dilapidated in economic crises. If these doubts gain traction, They could trigger a massive sale of dollars and a migration to alternative assets such as Bitcoin or Yuan.

Faced with this imbalance, the macroeconomist Lyn Alden proposes a more balanced monetary system, in which currencies such as yuan or the euro win weight and neutral assets – not controlled by any government, such as gold or bitcoin – serve as global reserves.

In such a way that the United States would have an exit in Bitcoin, since «it would arise as a tool for countries and individuals, especially in a world where no Fíat currency is large enough to lead alone.»

Lyn Alden, author of the book Broken Money.

He adds that, unlike gold, which requires a layer of credit to function as a means of exchange, it positions it as a complement to gold in a financially fragmented world.